Red
by The Grim Writer
Summary: Tony bonds with Natasha when she has a nightmare/panic attack/basically a mental break down because of her past


Hey, it's ya boi da Grim Writer, and I just thought I'd make a quick fic with Natasha and Tony bonding. It's supposed to be set somewhere in between Iron Man 3 and Age of Ultron, but it's not too important unless you really squint at it. Kinda also made it because of Endgame (those who've watched it, you know what I'm talking about).

Anyways, enjoy and review!

Red was everywhere, to the point where it was simply a color she was used to. She would see it in the mirror, her hair seemingly waving back at her like a bright crimson beacon. It was almost comforting. But then some nights it wasn't. Some nights she would wake up and imagine red covering her hands, her arms, her. Those were the nights she hated with passion. They would sneak up on her without warning, then snare her in their web of truth. Truth that she deeply wishes was only a lie.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Looking up from the pattern in the counter she was staring at for half an hour, she could see non-other than Tony Stark, wearing an oily AC-DC shirt and jeans while holding an empty coffee cup. Truthfully, she had known he was watching her for a while, probably trying to figure out why she was sitting in the communal kitchen at four in the morning.

"Need a coffee? That's what I'm getting, I'll make you one if you want"

She remained silent. That's what she was best at, her second being murdering, killing, choking, stabbing, shootin-

"I see I'm getting the silent treatment"

She didn't even have to look at his face to know he was smirking. His back was turned away from her, facing the opposite counter and making yet another pot of coffee. Probably on an inventing spree in the lab. Building better suits. Or weapons. Weapons for her to use to kill innocent-

"Yo Nat, what's going on? You mad at me or something?"

He should be the one mad. I invaded his personal space, tricked him, manipulated him, did the only thing I was meant to do-

"Seriously, Nat, what's wrong? Come on snap out of it-"

And that was when Tony knew he made his mistake. No, not staying up for nearly two full days upgrading his suits in the lab and running off of caffeine, but when he reached out to touch Natasha's shoulder, the assassin quickly grabbed him by his forearm and flipped him up and on the counter, the inventor slamming painfully on his back. Completely done on instinct.

Squinting through pained eyes, Tony looked at the red head who remained as stoic as ever. Honestly, he was about to ask her just what the hell she did that for when her voice made him freeze in his tracks.

"I'm sorry"

Her face didn't change, but her voice had sounded so… weak. Possibly even, sad? Depressed even. But before he could even process it, she quickly sprinted away, heading out of the room. Lying there on the granite counter, the genius slowly rose himself to a sitting position, wincing.

"Jarvis, where is she headed?"

"I believe she is heading through the ventilation unit"

Shit. Well, this is something he hadn't seen himself doing at four in the morning.

…

Red. There was so much red. Red on her hands, in her hair. Just red. Red. Red. Redredredredredredredred.

Gasping, she curled herself in tighter to the corner of the vent she was in. She had to hand it to Barton, it was nice in here. A lot less dust bunnies and tight painful places than she thought. Stark might have had these vents enlarged and self-cleaned or something. Or something. Or som- oh shit, there's more red. Apparently clutching your legs with your fingernails can draw blood. Fuck, now the reds getting everywhere. All over her legs, on the floor, in her eyes-

A small thump and a set of curse words snapped her out of it. Listening closely, she could hear a thumping noise approaching her, equivalent to someone crawling through the vents she crawled through not five minutes ago. A minute later she saw Stark crawling into view, crawling on his hands and knees with his phone held in his mouth, the flashlight on its surface lighting up the dark area. Setting the phone down in between the two, he sat down awkwardly, wincing slightly at the aches his body made.

"Hey"

What was going on here? He should be angry at her, she hurt him, he should hurt her back that was how it worked, wasn't it? Unless this is some kind of new punishment, a new form of torture.

"I'm… a, well, I'm gonna be completely honest with you, I'm the last person who should deal with, uh… well, you know…"

Lost for words, the genius simply gestured towards his heart, muttering something about emotions and crap. What an odd form of torture this was. Maybe it was only beginning.

"I… I don't want to say I know exactly what you're going through because we're both smart enough to know that's bull, but I think I have an idea about how you feel"

Ah, yes, this is torture then. The murderer could feel it start to deeply stir in her chest, a painful feeling, not unlike a balloon slowly expanding inside her lungs, making it hard to breath.

"After the… the wormhole incident, you know, New York? I… I had a hard time adjusting after that. I was getting panic attacks, I couldn't sleep because of nightmares"

It was ok, she was ok. All she had to do was make it through this and she would be ok. She survived worse forms of punishme-

"And, I just want you to know that you aren't alone. You have a whole team here who cares about you. You have a place here with us-"

"I have no place in the world"

The words came on command, courtesy of the Red Room. Huh, funny, maybe that's why all she sees is red. Red here, red there, red every-

"You do. Nat, look at me. Look at me"

Blinking, she raised her eyes to look at him. He seemed sincere. Seemed. Who knows how he actually felt. She herself should know that, she's spent countless times expressing fake emotion, putting on so many different masks-

"Nat, you are the glue that keeps this team from falling into chaos. If you weren't around, I guarantee you Steve and I would have killed each other by now, Bruce wouldn't be able to calm himself down in time before we have a "Code Jolly Green" on our hands, Thor would have destroyed everything in the kitchen by accident looking for Pop Tarts, and Clint would have tee-peed the tower. You are important to this team, and I can't imagine it without you"

Suddenly, her vision started to go blurry. Before she had a chance to panic at the drug she was injected with, she felt something wet slide down her cheek, dripping from her chin. Perhaps a deadly gas was in the vents, irritating her eyes? Or maybe more red?

"Nat, can I touch you? You really look like you need a hug"

Nodding slowly, she leaned forward and the inventor wrapped her in his arms, holding her close. Her eyes started watering more, and when she sniffled, she realized these were tears, not red. Her shoulders started shaking as she started sobbing harder.

"You're ok now Nat, I got you"

A few minutes went by before her tears started to dry up. She pulled away, and looked towards the ground"

"…thank you"

Tony cracked a rare, genuine smile.

"No prob. Uh, here"

Reaching into his back pocket, he handed her a wad of folded up paper towels, which she took curiously. He gestured towards her legs.

"Originally I grabbed these for your eyes, but I think your legs need more attention"

Looking down, she could see the marks she made with her fingernails stained her legs a red color. Red. Oh god, more re-

"OR!"

Snapping her head up, she could see a wide-eyed Tony, realizing what he had accidentally caused.

"Or", he said in a gentler tone, "maybe I could clean them up for you? So you won't have to look at them?"

A small nod and she handed him back the paper towels, which he pressed against the scratches on her legs. A few minutes passed, and he gently lifted the paper from them, and seeing she was done bleeding, he quickly crumpled up the wad before she could see its color and stuffed it in his pocket.

"Ok, so I can either go get some wet wipes to clean up your legs better or we can both crawl out of here and clean yourself up. Or we can just stay here for a while, I really don't care. So, what's it going to be?"

She sat silent for a minute, before she started to crawl past Tony and out of the vents. The inventor began following her, grabbing his phone quickly before he forgot it.

"Out it is then"

…

Sitting on the counter, Natasha let Tony wipe the rest of the dried blood off of her legs with a damp rag, feeling empty. He must have seen how she felt written on her face because when he was done, he tossed the rag in the trash and held out his hand for her, which she took as he helped her down.

"So… sleep or movie? Or something else you wanna do?"

The spy processed her options. She didn't feel very tired, and she wasn't sure what else she wanted to do, so she figured she'd go with a movie.

"Movie"

"Alright then, anything particular?"

She nodded her head no then plopped down on the couch, Tony joining her a few seconds later after grabbing a blanket and handing one end to Natasha, which she excepted and covered half of it with herself, the other half covering the inventor. Snuggled under the warmth, the two superheroes turned on the tv and began channel surfing.

…

At five am, Steve switched off his alarm clock and got out of bed, ready to start the day. Throwing on some sweats, he was about to head down to the training room to start his daily routine when something caught the corner of his eye.

Peeking into the communal living room, he saw non-other than Natasha Romanoff and Tony Stark snuggled up underneath a blanket on the couch, sound asleep. Both Avengers were leaning up against each other, Natasha a peaceful look on her normally stoic face and Tony, being the slightly taller one, had his head resting atop her red hair. Steve gave a warm smile, then quietly asked Jarvis to shut the door so no one could disturb the tuckered-out heroes, as well as maybe take a few pictures at the cute scene, which the robotic butler happily did. As Steve left, the female Avenger shifted slightly, then snuggled deeper into the blanket and Tony's side, a small smile forming on her face.

For once in her life, Natasha Romanoff did not dream of red.

**Author's Note**

Be sure to check in with your friends and family occasionally to make sure their doing ok. Also, make sure it's ok to hug or touch someone else before doing so, some people are uncomfortable with this and it's always nice to be courteous.

Anyway, please review!


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